Colorado Buffaloes 2012

It's Signing Day !!

Berkley Gamble is not coming to CU, opted for Washington instead. But according to the Boulder newspaper, we get her teammate (club and high school) Nikki Machalek, a speedy goal-scorer who was on the receiving end of several Annie Stuller assists two years ago. I saw her in a few games last year ... she's good.

So far, NLI's have been received from teammates Carly Manso and Olivia Pappalardo from Illinois, Heather Ward from the Colorado Rush, and Madison Krauser from California, these were all on the above website. AND, we snatched one literally out from under the nose of the University of Arizona ... Jenna Glad, who lives almost next door to the UA campus.

Here's the website article about signing day: http://www.cubuffs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205372778&DB_OEM_ID=600

 

Coach Hempen's Family 1, Moving Elsewhere 0.

The Colorado caucuses are this evening, but Bill Hempen has already cast his vote for family and quality of life. The Hempens are staying home.

From the Boulder newspaper:

http://www.bocopreps.com/ci_19903855?source=rss

and from the Alexander Dawson website:

http://www.dawsonschool.org/news/detail.aspx?pageaction=ViewSinglePublic&LinkID=1581&ModuleID=56&NEWSPID=1

Good for him !!

 

Spring Soccer ...

... starts Saturday, March 3. Don't know who or where.

 

Re: Spring Soccer ...

The schedule (spring) will be out tomorrow, I'll post it here as soon as I see it.

 

Spring Soccer is here, almost

Starts Saturday March 3 against Metro State on Kittredge Field at the southeast corner of the CU campus. 3:30PM

Then five weeks to defrost, followed by Colorado School of Mines in Golden at 6PM on Friday, April 6.

Prentup Field gets activated on Sunday April 15 with a double-header against Northern Colorado at 10AM and Colorado College at 1:30.

Finally ... Road Trip to Grand Junction. On Saturday April 21 its Colorado Mesa at 11AM and Utah State at 2, then Southern Utah Sunday morning at 9.

No Wyoming ...

Mines outplayed and defeated us 2-0 last spring, and a year before that it took an inspired performance from seldom-used and substitute Lexi Rakestraw for us to defeat Metro State 3-2. Some of these Division II teams are pretty good.

 

Fall 2012 partial schedule

Sunday August 24 at Colorado College, 4PM.


I said it was partial ...

 

Kelly Ross

Page 1, Section B, today's Denver Post. That is THE Kelly Ross.

http://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODE/DenverPost/

Scroll down.

Hope the link works ...

 

Buffs 3, Metro State 0

It was a cold and windy afternoon. Very windy. Highlights now, details later.

Wow. Same faces. Same numbers. Lizzy is still tall. Alex is still fast (good to see, the knee brace doesnt seem to affect her play). We still hit the crossbar, twice. The ball was round and the grass was green. But the Buffs ... not the same. A joy to behold.

Erin Bricker is a defender. Not a misprint, that's her position, and she's good at it. I don't think she's played in back in her life

Shaye scored in the first half, Annie and Storie scored in the third half. Thats what the scoreboard said ... Half 3.

Did I mention that it was cold and windy?

 

Wow, Part II

This isn't Wow because the Buffs beat a Division II team. Although Metro State is a good one ... they peck way higher in the D-II order than we do in D-I. There are really good D-II teams in Colorado. Last spring, in three tries, we did not defeat any of them. Tied Regis and Fort Lewis, and lost to the School of Mines 2-0. This is wow because of how the team played. Emphasis on the word "team".

Remember all those long kicks (I won't call them passes) from the middle of the field towards the end line, perhaps hoping that two defenders would run into each other and fall down, or one of them would trip over a prairie dog burrow? Didn't happen yesterday. There were a few passes that missed the target and rolled to the end line or were intercepted by the goalkeeper, but those were passes, not punts from midfield. Not that the ball was never in the air, just way less often.

Annie B. could have spent the first 35 minutes or so picking dandelions if there were any yet. She did have a couple of goal kicks late in the half. Metro State put several attacks together in the second (or third, said the scoreboard) half and Annie had to make some saves.

We hit the crossbar twice in the first half, but a strange thing happened the first time ... the ball bounced in. Barely. The linesperson did not immediately call it a goal. This was a superb effort from Shaye, taking the ball from the right sideline to the middle of the field about 20+ yards from the goal and launching a left-foot shot, 1-0 Buffs.

The second and third goals were a result of the team (players plural)keeping the ball within shooting range long enough for a briefly open shot. Storie came so close several times last year, I was happy to see her get one.

This, after only three weeks of practice. Impressive.

 

Formations, etc

Asking me about formations is like asking a cockroach about nuclear physics, but I can fake it better than a cockroach, so ...

There were four defenders. I believe this is normal, although occasionally we've had three, or none. The only time the midfielders and forwards were standing still was when they were in a line at kickoff. If I had to guess at numbers I'd guess 2-4-4. If anybody was at the game, is reading this, and knows what a formation is, I could use the help.

But I do kind of remember who played where. Clare and Carly didn't ... Carly has an owie and we won't see her on the field until August, don't know about Clare. Alex has returned to the defense and Erin has joined it, they started along with Lizzy and Bianca. And incoming player Heather Ward is a defender. If everybody stays healthy, Amy can spend the season in midfield, and Hayley can introduce herself to the other team's goalkeeper on a regular basis.

At the next game I'll sit next to someone who better knows what's actually happening on the field and I'll provide a better answer to the formations question.


Future Buffalo Jenna Glad has been named (take a deep breath now) 2012 Arizona High School Girls Soccer Big Schools Player of the Year. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=htt...QE7DcElAQHyo8rLmnEdgqAmJiWW5sUeqUH3KxpJt_hkkQ

 

Distinguished Alumni, Soccer Department

Michelle Wenino has signed with the Chicago Red Stars, where she started her pro career: http://www.chicagolandsoccernews.com/teams/redstars2.php?article_id=10280

And Nikki Marshall has signed with the Western New York Flash:
http://www.womensprosoccer.com/wny/news/press_releases/032112-Flash_sign_6_to_2012 roster

 

Soccer !!

Friday, 6PM, at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. A D-II team that last time we played defeated us 2-0 in a 50-minute game indoors at Wyoming, this time it's a full game and on their field.

Weather should be good. Was that cold white stuff yesterday snow? Been so long I've forgotten what it looks like.

 

They did it to us again.

People who dig long holes in the ground 1,

Thundering herd of large prairie animals 0.

We had our chances, but so did they. It could have been worse.

It was totally windy when I left Boulder, and on the way to Golden I thought my large heavy all-wheel-drive SUV was going to get blown off the road and roll all the way to Kansas. Made it to Golden, the School of Mines is right off the highway, asked directions (I know, odd for a man) and found the soccer field Nice field, plastic grass (so was our field for Metro State last month), permanent bleachers five or six rows deep along much of the length of the field, right below the big white M on the mountainside.

I was hoping for a north-south field, so both teams would have to deal with a disruptive crosswind from the west. No such luck, it's an east-west field and we got the headwind for the first half. The headwind was fierce and so were the Orediggers, between the two of them (it wasn't just the wind), we could not get the ball much past midfield. We weren't knocked back on our heels by the constant pressure, we were just stuck. Clare played, Carly and Darcy and Amy didn't. Mines was knocking us off the ball and onto the ground quite a bit, not playing thuggish soccer by any means but definitely the aggressor, and the whistle didn't blow very often. Having Amy on the field would have helped.

So who did that leave available as substitutes? Not very many. Sometime maybe early in the second quarter (there was no scoreboard keeping time, it was there but not on), in comes number 13. Who is num ... oh, THAT number 13, Kate Russell. She's been working out with the team, everybody else seemed to know this but I didn't. A good sign that her soccer career is not over.

Our two forward attempt at an attack became one forward, let's just get through this half and in the second half, Mines will get to deal with the headwind. Wrong. The wind died down. The game immediately spread to cover the entire field, and we were getting players plural involved in an attack. NOW there will be some excitement. And there quickly was. Mines scored.

And they almost scored again a couple of minutes later. More of them than us were in front of our goal, and while they were discussing who would take the tap-in shot, Annie came out the short distance and smothered the discussion. So we're down 1-0 but whatever wind is left will now be in our favor and we're getting our players into the attack so we'll be fine.

And for the most part, we were, the missing part being the tying goal. Kate played most of the second half, and it was an entertaining back-and-forth half. Mines did not appear at any time to be sitting on the lead, and although possession and time of attack favored us, Mines had two very near misses. I thought the first one was in, I had the perfect angle of view, but there was just enough wind and maybe spin on the ball or a magnetic field, and it passed a mouse hair to the right of the goalpost. I didn't see the shot on the second one because players were in the way, but it was more wide, three or four mouse hairs. We had a shot late in the game that the GK leaped sideways to tap just wide of the post and over the endline. Mines had a wide-open shot a couple of yards outside of the penalty spot, a bulls eye right at Annie. I think it was Annie, I never saw a GK substitution but I missed the first couple of minutes of the second half, if anybody reading this was there and paying attention, did Annie play the entire game or did she and Kayla split playing time?

There was a good crowd, lots of Mines People and we had about all of our extended families and friends and at least one fan. Why was 3/4 or more of the game played on the other side of the field?

Is the School of Mines that good? I'll say this, when they play Metro State, bet the ranch and all the cows on Mines.

Driving back to Boulder, I thought the SUV was going to become a tumbleweed. One more question: Where was all that wind when we needed it ????

 

Nice writeup...I didn't go to the game but had the pleasure of driving in the same wind. Never underestimate Mines...they get a share of top local talent who just happen to be in the top 1/4 percent of the brains and want to be guaranteed 6 figures when they graduate. Engineering nerds yes, but plenty of Rush and Real talent there. Not intimidated by a Pac 12 label. Hope the Buffs can build now with Danny at the helm.

 

The Orediggers

Don't they have a cheer that goes something like

That's all right, that's OK,
You will work for us someday.


A better answer than the one I gave to the "Are they really that good?" question is Yes.

 

Coach Sanchez and Recruiting

Fourteen newcomers ??

Five scholarship players were announced, does anybody know who the sixth is? I believe there will be a transfer from Nebraska and a walk-on from Fairview High School in Boulder. That's eight, or seven if the transfer is the sixth scholarship. Does anybody know who the others are? I am not the ultimate insider, or even an unultimate insider, so if this is not "classified" information, can anyone help us out here?

 

Games SATURDAY, not Sunday

Saturday at Prentup Field:

9:00, Colorado and Northern Colorado

10:30, Northern Colorado and Colorado College

12:15, Colorado and Colorado College

 

Re:walk ons. Don't know, and hope it works out. There are plenty of Colorado players who would have stayed home over the past few years if not for Hempen; he just was not popular with the kids and coaches. So we hope for that to change. Makes you wonder if the walk ons are local talent who were late in deciding. Sanchez sure got a lot of kids to go to Metro State and Wyoming who otherwise wouldn't. Recruiting to Boulder....well, who doesn't love Boulder.

 

Shaye 2, Storie 1, Northern Colorado 0, Colorado College 0

Also known as Colorado 2, Northern Colorado 0, and Colorado 1, Colorado College 0. CC was tough, we got 2 shots on goal in the first half and none in the second half. UNC got none against them.

Details to follow. Have dinner first.

 

The Long Version

So I arrived about 8:45 for a 9AM game and there was nobody there. Not totally nobody, there were 3 or 4 people sitting on the CU bench, a couple of parents, and a coach was warming up the three goalkeepers. They were being blasted with hard shots, and put on one outstanding goalkeeping exhibition, beyond anything we ever see in a game. All three of them. I know, we only have two and maybe we still only have two, but there were three this morning, one of whom is the GK for the CU club team and she is good. None of the 14 newcomers are a GK. Sign her up.

Included in the nobody there was the Northern Colorado soccer team. Their bus croaked at the Longmont exit from I-25 and they were awaiting rescue. This (the dead bus) they did not need, they were scheduled to play us for 70 minutes, than after a ten minute break play Colorado College for 70 minutes, then get on what turned out to be the two rescue busses and travel to Golden to play the School of Mines this afternoon. The good news is that they have a very large roster. Suddenly the parking lot became very crowded, there was a big track meet next door with CU hosting seven other Colorado schools all of which bussed in I think, then UNC and CC arrived at the same time.

Everybody warmed up, the game started, and UNC more than held their own against us. About 15 minutes in we got a corner kick. Annie took it, it was about perfect, and the UNC goalkeeper kind of got hung out to dry by her defense because the three people standing in front of her waiting for the ball to come down were Lizzy, Shaye and Lauren. And then the most amazing thing happened. The ball found Shaye’s head and she flicked it into the goal. Shaye scoring is not amazing, it’s something she does, but when did we last score off a corner kick? Nobody knew, but last season we took 102 corner kicks and did not score, so it’s been a while. And the rest of the half belonged to Northern Colorado, although we did get on the attack a few times.

We came out stronger in the second half and just a couple of minutes in there was a flagrantly unintentional hand ball just inside our box that did not at all affect where the ball went. It was obvious enough, but everybody played on and I didn’t hear anybody wailing for a penalty kick as fans and benches have been known to do, and if there was ever a case of no harm no foul this was it, but it got called anyway. Annie missed the PK. It settled into a good back and forth game, then the ball and Storie found each other and she did a short run to get open and blasted a shot past the GK and into the net, 2-0 Buffs and that’s how it ended. UNC played a lot of substitutes because they had them, and we didn’t because we didn’t.

Colorado College took the field to play UNC and they had as many subs as we do, which I believe was two. It was also more than they had last weekend when they lost to Denver, Mines and Metro (I think). They are decimated by injuries. They opened their spring schedule at Missouri. You don’t suppose …

CC is living proof that a team doesn’t have to be tall to be fast, because they aren’t and they are. They also have one very tight defense. In 70 minutes, UNC was credited with exactly zero shots on goal. Final was 2-0 CC, which was a fair result.

We started out with a good multi-player attack on Colorado College, but their noshotsongoal streak continued until Hayley passed to Shaye who ran and dribbled through and past a herd of Tigers and didn’t blast the open shot, just put it where the GK wasn’t. Shaye has become one outstanding goal scorer, demonstrating ability to get herself in a position to shoot, and ability to shoot very well once she gets there. We managed a second shot on goal in the half, and that was the only save CC made all day because we didn’t get a shot on goal in the second half. The Tigers somewhat outplayed us in the second half, but Shaye’s goal stood, 1-0 Buffs.

All three games were good to watch, hard play with not many fouls, the weather was cool but not cold, and what wind there was didn’t affect the games. It’s been a good spring. The attack is not overpowering but we have one, and the defense has taken some pressure and been very solid.
LOTS of teams in Grand Junction next weekend, including us.